Beadle's Dime Novels No. 126: Old Jupe — page 90: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

92 OLD JUPE. CHAPTER XI. THE PEACE THAT PASSETH ALL UNDERSTANDING. AUNT CLARE’s famous Christmas breakfast was a thing of the past. The dishes weré washed, and a huge turkey was | now undergoing a process of stuffing quite different from that by which it had been aceustomed to stuff itself. Mrs. Miller sat in her arm-chair, gently smiling at the group upon the carpet. Mary, rosy with the exercise, was tossing a ball for Luke, stopping every third moment, to snatch him to her bosom and cover his face, neck and arms with kisses. In the excitement of the hour, the marks of years of anguish faded out for the time being. No one, looking at her, could have guessed at the years of agony which bad bowed that young head. She was a child again, with her child. “Who am I?” she would ask him, over and over again. And every time he said “ My mamma,” she -~would catch him up and kiss him. | In the midst of their frolic a knock came to the door. Mary started to retreat into herroom; she did not so soon feel ready to meet the prying eyes of curious neighbors; but, the door was opened by the one who knocked, a boy from the hotel, who thrust a letter upon a chair near by. “Its for Mrs. Mary Bryant,” he remarked, rolling his eyes around to catch a glimpse of the woman who had been in jail, and instantly darting out of the door as he met her gentle look. “There must be some mistake, unless the chaplain has writ- ten to me, as he promised. But that would not have come go soon.” She picked up the letter, and a cry escaped her lips, ‘ What is it, Mary ?” | “ It looks like Luke’s handwriting, mother. I must go to my room.” . Mary closed her door, and sunk upon a chair by the win- dow. The sight of the letter recalled too Vividly that hour “ Comicoooks.com